Meet our expert: Lon Allen

Lon attended Truman State University from 1991-1995, and, while there, entered the comics business part-time. His successful part-time business became a successful full-time business In 2000 when he started J.L.A. Comics. Lon joined Heritage in 2002 and became Director of Sales for the Comics Division in 2005. He is an advisor to both the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and to GPAnalysis.com.

Meet our consignment experts

Ed Jaster
Comics & Comic Art

From the very beginning, Ed Jaster seemed destined for the art business. His parents met while attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1940s, the same school their son would later attend. Subsequently, for some 20 years, Ed owned his own commercial art firm in Chicago, acquiring, trading, and selling world class collections of American photography, illustration art, and vintage comic books. Ed brought his vast experience and expertise in collectibles to Heritage Auctions in 2002.

Jim Steele
Comics & Comic Art

Jim Steele gleaned his expertise and encyclopedic knowledge of comic books the old-fashioned way - he worked the comic convention circuit as a dealer for over 20 years while owning a collectibles bookstore. The years in the collectibles trenches paid off in 2002 when he joined Heritage, and by 2003 he had become Chief Cataloger for the Comics & Comic Art Division. Jim has also been an integral part of Heritage's Entertainment & Music auctions and has spearheaded two Ultimate Elvis auctions since 2010.

Lon Allen
Comics & Comic Art

Lon attended Truman State University from 1991-1995, and, while there, entered the comics business part-time. His successful part-time business became a successful full-time business In 2000 when he started J.L.A. Comics. Lon joined Heritage in 2002 and became Director of Sales for the Comics Division in 2005. He is an advisor to both the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and to GPAnalysis.com.

Barry Sandoval
Comics & Comic Art

In addition to managing Heritage's Comics division, which sells some $45 million worth of vintage comics, original comic art, and animation art each year, Barry helps evaluate collections and helps write and research catalog descriptions of high-profile lots. He recently won the CGC grading contest held at Wizard World Chicago. He is an advisor to the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.

Weldon Adams
Comics & Comic Art

Weldon Adams has over 35 years of accumulated experience in the
comic book industry. He has managed three different comic stores and worked for
publishers such as Acclaim Entertainment and Ape Entertainment. He is a regular
at industry trade show events, where he has often moderated panel discussions
with comics creators. Adams is an advisor to the Overstreet Comic Book Price
Guide.

Matt Griffin
Comics & Comic Art

Matt attended the University of Arkansas and moved to Dallas, Texas in 2007, where he entered into the comics field. A lifelong collector and hobby enthusiast, he has a decade of experience in the industry as a grader, buyer, seller, and consignment director dealing in comics, comic art, and animation art. In addition to his duties as consignment director, he also frequently assists in cataloging books and art for the Signature Auction catalogs and the weekly auctions. He has been with Heritage since 2012 and makes frequent visits to our new Chicago office to meet with clients and evaluate collections.

Greg Holman
Comics & Comic Art

After attending Southwest Texas State University and serving a tour in the Dallas art gallery community, Greg Holman turned his love of comics into a full-time career, learning the ins and outs of selling comics from one of the largest comic dealers in the country. Greg's duties at Heritage include Consignment Direction as well as describing and proof-reading catalog consignments. Greg has co-starred on ABC's "Great Big American Auction" with Ty Pennington, he has appeared on "Storage Wars: Texas" as a Pop-Culture Expert, and he is currently co-starring in VH1 Classic's "For What It's Worth," a collectibles-oriented series starring Gary Dell'Abate (Howard Stern's Executive Producer) and Jon Hein (Pop Culture Expert and star of "Fast Food Mania"). He has been a keynote speaker for the International Society of Appraisers and has been a featured expert in Heritage Magazine. Greg is also currently in pre-production on several other Network collectibles/reality-based TV shows.

Jim Lentz
Comics & Comic Art

Jim Lentz is the former president and owner of the Midwest animation art gallery chain, Stay Tooned Galleries. In the past he has also served as the National Sales Manager for Disney Fine Art and ben a consultant to Walt Disney Art Classics. Jim sat on the Disney Advisory Board of Dealers while he was running his chain of galleries. Jim was a Corporate Sponsor for the Midwest Chapter of ASIFA (Chicago Chapter of the International Animated Film Association) as well as the creator and curator for the 1989 – 1999 Midwest Animation Lecture Series in Illinois and Minnesota. This lecture series was a virtual who’s-who of animation both young and old. Animators, animation historians, directors ,writers, animation “Legends”, voice talent, studio heads and family members of deceased animation pioneers were all included in this impressive roster of speakers. Jim had an early career with such companies as Chrysler Corporation and Tenneco Automotive before opening his first gallery in Barrington, Illinois. Jim is a graduate of CW Post University in New York.

Joe Mannarino
Comics & Comic Art

Joe’s resume in the field of Comic character collectibles includes but is not limited to: Principal owner along with his wife and partner Nadia of All Star Auctions and Comics and Stories, premier dealers of rare Comic Collectibles for over 30 years. Co-owners of Comic Art Appraisal LLC where they have prepared formal appraisals for well over 1 million items, including the most significant institutions, collectors and professionals in the field. Exclusive Comic Collectibles Consultants for Christie's from 1992 to 1997, where they inaugurated and conducted seven record setting Comic Collectibles sales; representatives for some of the most prestigious artists to have ever worked in the medium, including the Estate of Winsor McCay, Frank Frazetta, Carmine Infantino, Jerry Robinson, Joe Simon, Angelo Torres and Mort Drucker to name a few. They have worked directly with professionals and collectors alike whose careers and interests have spanned the history of the medium to the present day.

Publishers and authors of The Christie's East Comic Collectibles catalogues; perennial special advisors and contributors to The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, the universally acknowledged reference work in the field; charter and founding members of the American Association of Comic Book Collectors Committee for Authenticity Certification and Grading; members of the American Institute Of Conservation for more than 20 years; author of the CAAR rating system as published in The Overstreet Guide To Collecting Comic And Animation Art, Gemstone Publishing, Oct. 2013 and authors of the definitive feature on high-end transactions in the Comic Collectibles field, Collecting At The Top, which appeared monthly in Gemstone Publishing Overstreet's FAN Magazine.

Nadia Mannarino
Comics & Comic Art

Nadia has an extensive background in both marketing and sales promotions. With a Bachelor of Science degree from New York University, Ms. Mannarino was co-owner of Comics and Stories, dealers of rare Comic Collectibles. She was co-owner of All Star Auctions, a firm specializing in auctioning Comic Character related items and was the Comic Collectibles Consultant for Christie’s East from 1992-1997.

In addition, she has been a member of the prestigious American Appraisers Association for over 10 years and is fully certified in the accepted appraisal practices as required by the Association. As such she is the only licensed member of the AAA in the field of Comic Character Collectibles. As agent for some of the most prestigious artists to have ever worked in the medium, including Frank Frazetta, Mort Drucker, Carmine Infantino, Joe Simon, Angelo Torres and Jim Steranko, she has been instrumental in bringing the medium forward focusing also on up-and-coming artists and storytellers.

Jerry Stephan
Comics & Comic Art

Jerry Stephan received his BA from the University of Missouri at St. Louis. He became a comic dealer after his time in the Navy, attending shows all over the mid-west. Jerry owned a comic shop from 1985 to 1987, and from 1994 until 2002 he hosted close to a dozen comic shows in St. Louis under the More Fun Conventions banner. In 2002, he moved to Sarasota Florida where he spent the next five years as a grader for Comics Guaranty Company. He joined Heritage Auction Galleries in 2007 and is responsible for grading many of the raw comics you see in Heritage's Sunday night auctions as well as their Signature Auctions!

David Tosh
Comics & Comic Art

Lifelong animation fan David Tosh has been with Heritage
going on fourteen years, working first in the Comics and Entertainment
divisions as a cataloger and consignment director. In 2016, David was named
Senior Animation Art Cataloger, working directly with Jim Lentz in our
Animation Art Division. David has written a number of published Pop Culture articles,
and in 2015, a book on collectible comics, Picker’s
Guide: Comic Books, published by Krause. He has also edited and digitally
restored art for two reprint books, Henry
Speaks for Himself (Fantagraphics, 2014), and Walt Kelly’s Fables and Funnies (Dark Horse, 2016). David
has been a comics fan since the early 1960s, and a serious collector since
1972. He owned and operated a small collectibles shop, “Mr. Nostalgia,” in
Batesville Arkansas, and has a business background in Advertising Art and
Client Services. He is also one of the Heritage Bloggers, and for a number of
years has self-published Mumbo, a digest-sized magazine about comics, music,
and other Pop Culture subjects.

Aaron White
Comics & Comic Art

Aaron has a decade of experience in the rare comic hobby and has logged thousands of hours grading and evaluating comics from all ages. He attracted notice in the comic hobby by finishing second in the CGC grading contest held at the Baltimore and New York comic conventions in 2009. Aaron enjoys assisting clients in valuation, guiding them through the consignment process, and finding new homes for their treasures. He is also a member of the North Texas chapter of Mensa.